No Game
by Ninja Shen
Summary: friendship fic [?], Nekozawa x Renge. oneshot. He is ready to try again, but he can't do it alone.


Written for a contest with a summer theme, the rules required me to keep this story between 900 and 1,500 words. I may have been disqualified because this is about 1,800. I really tried to keep it short, and ended up deleting a lot that I had written, so the editing is poor. Also I apologize if the characters seem OOC- they were surprisingly hard to write, and this was my first time trying.

* * *

She had a place under the third floor music room where she liked to be when the Host Club was session. It was a sparsely used storage room where she had ordered a rotating platform to be built for the purpose of an incredibly flashy and overdramatic entrance when she sensed her help in a situation was required in the room above- which, in her professional opinion, it always was.

It was in this room that he found her.

He approached her, a dark clad figure that blended so well into the shadows that at first she did not even notice him enter, and was startled when she finally did, when he was nearly right behind her. She gasped loudly, and then sighed in relief when she recognized him.

"You frightened me!" Renge scolded, a disapproving look on her face, her hands sternly on her hips. Nekozawa would have usually smiled triumphantly at such an exclamation, but today his face was cold, determined. He threw back the hood of his cloak to face her, the long dark strands of the hair on his wig falling into his icy blue eyes as he faced her intently. Renge raised a curious eyebrow at his serious countenance, but was only slightly impressed. After all, he did still have a cat puppet perched on his hand like an oven mitt.

"I'm ready to try again," he proclaimed after only a brief silence. Renge crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, knowing immediately what he was referring to.

"Last time you were in the sun for less than a minute and you passed out," she reminded him crossly, to his embarrassment. "Why would you want to subject yourself to that again?"

"It's nearly summer," he began, and lowering his voice only slightly enough for her to hear him, he muttered, "I need to be able to go outside."

"Without your cloak?"

"She wants to go to the beach. I… I want to take her there."

There was a moment's silence as she considered this. So it was Kirimi again… he wanted to be able to spend time with his sister in the atmosphere she loved best; the sun. He really was hopeless. Nekozawa pulled his cloak back over his face, now a little embarrassed to have asked for her help when it had only barely worked last time.

Renge sighed pitifully and uncrossed her arms. How could she turn him down when he had come to her specifically? Besides, he was still sorta cute. She was such a sucker for a pretty face.

"All right," she agreed, and he raised his eyes, somewhat shocked, as though he had expected her to decline. Renge raised her arm and pointed at him resolutely, a hard look on her face. "But you aren't allowed to quit this time, and I'm not going easy on you! It's going to be tough! But you're going to be a man and stick it out! You got that?"

He stared at her in disbelief, his blue eyes wide. Then, with a smile, Nekozawa nodded. "I understand."

* * *

As they had done before, they trained in a dark room with the curtains closed, his cat, hood and wig thrown aside. It was astonishing to Renge how completely different he looked without them, although his personality remained the same. Somehow, hearing his cryptic gothic imagery coming from the face of a prince was even more frightening than when it came from the face of an occultist. It was so uncanny.

After days of intense training, (after class when neither of them had a club meeting,) he had finally mastered the "Beam of Evil". He could know look directly into the flashlight for an extended period of time and only suffer spotty vision. But a flashlight was not natural light. The true enemy, the ultimate goal, the _End Boss_ as Renge called it, was the sun.

They were currently in the process of exposing him to small doses at once. One of the large, thick curtains was drawn only slightly, and his training was to stand in front of the sliver of light that shone through it for as long as he could.

So far, it was less than phenomenal progress.

"You are _wasting our time_!" She announced harshly as the Black Magic Club's president once again fell back into the safety of the darkness. "You have VERY little time left until summer vacation, and you can't even peek out the window! _Honestly!_" She exclaimed, exasperated, throwing up her hands with a scowl. "Are you REALLY trying!"

"It _burns_!" he seethed through set teeth, panting on the ground with his arm over his eyes.

"Stop being so dramatic," she rolled her eyes and approached him, very ready to just kick the bastard. It was true that summer was approaching rapidly, she knew because it was _hot_. Ouran always had a very comfortable room temperature, but today it seemed like even the air conditioning wouldn't be enough to keep out the oppressive heat pouring into every window from suffocating everyone. It was making her VERY cranky, and she was getting bored. She wanted to go home and play a video game.

Arduously, Nekozawa stood up again, steadying his thin frame against the wall. Sweat was pouring down his face, matting his gold hair to his forehead, and he looked exhausted. Quitting was at the tip of everyone's tongue, but for the promise he made not to. For Kirimi.

But even glancing at the open curtain from the shadows was starting to hurt. He rubbed his eyes painfully, steeling himself for another go but certain this time would not be a record breaker.

Renge watched as he looked mournfully at the window, his brows furrowed in anxiety, and it occurred to her, perhaps only now REALLY occurred to her for the first time that maybe he wasn't being as dramatic as she proclaimed. It seemed he really was suffering.

"Let's rest a moment. Go ahead and close it. God, I go so easy on you…" she shook her head, her hands on her hips as he quickly complied, throwing the curtain closed and sinking into a chair readily.

"You're going through a lot of trouble for this," she noted. "Is the beach really all that important?"

"I hate the beach," he replied darkly with his forehead resting on his hand.

"But is _it important_?" She asked again.

"It is," he answered. "She asked me to take her. I told her I would."

"How ridiculous," she bit. "Making promises you can't keep. That isn't very gentlemanly of you, Umehito."

His eyes quickly raised towards her at the ease in which she used his first name, but she had turned her back crossly, hands on hips. It was true that she had been spending an increasing amount of time with him since he had requested her help, but it was the first time she had said his name. She had done it so casually, too. No one called him by his name. He wasn't even certain anyone knew what it was.

"I can keep it," he breathed, frowning. "I just…." He trailed off.

"It's a shame you're hair isn't naturally black like your wig," she suddenly changed the subject, turning towards him with a delighted smile. "I just _love_ Japanese black hair."

"I'm Russi-"

"-And the Host Club already _has_ two blonds, but only Kyouya has _really_ black hair…"

"The _Host Club_!" Nekozawa interrupted, Startled and perhaps slightly enraged, "Where did _that_ come from?"

"Nowhere," she answered innocently, giving him a smug look, "Just a train of thought."

"Of what sort?"

"Wellll," she grinned somewhat sadistically, "I thought maybe if this worked, it would be _awful_ fun if you joined. After all, some girls really like that sort of dark magician, villain thing you have going on and they don't _have_ one of _those_ yet-"

"_Don't bet on it_," he answered sharply, restraining his fury with great source of will, glaring intently. "I have my own club to maintain, I don't have time to sit around entertaining silly women with people I don't even like."

"_Excuse me_!" Renge hollered ferociously, and Nekozawa winced and fell back. Suddenly he remembered why he even KNEW Renge. He cringed.

"I happen to _be_ one of those 'silly women', as well as their female manager and chief supporter!" She raged, exaggerating her title for effect. "If you're going to insult me, then our work here is done!" She turned dramatically away and stormed towards the door. Realizing what he had done, the boy scrambled up after her, trying to block her path.

"Wait! I'm sorry! I- I didn't mean you, of course not!" He explained desperately. "Please, wait, Renge! I need your help!"

"Humph!" she huffed indignantly, but still stopped to allow him to apologize.

She was startled when, out of the corner of her eye, there appeared a puppet of a cat.

"You may take out your wrath on this cursed doll, Bereznoff," his voice from behind her offered, and Bereznoff seemed to nod. "He won't even curse you for it, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. He will absorb it, and it will make him stronger."

"That's so stupid," she shook her head, but a small laugh escaped her. "You're stupid."

"You're laughter gives you away, like the light of a candle." Bereznoff wiggled his little cloth hands. "You can still hit him, though. Would you like to know some good curses? I'll give you a few for free."

"I bet you would LOVE that," she berated, but she was smiling. Her defenses were now unarmed. God, what an idiot he was.

"Hey," he started, "Did you mean what you said, though? That I should- or rather, could- join their club?"

"Do you mean, do I think you're good looking enough to join?" she smirked, turning to look at him over her shoulder. A small blush spread across his pale face. "Of course I do," she was quick to answer, "You wouldn't be worth my time otherwise."

"That's rather shallow of you," he laughed.

"I have no reason not to be," she replied haughtily with a delighted smile. "I can afford it."

"How awful," he smiled. He then sighed as he glanced back towards the curtain. "I suppose we should continue."

Renge considered the curtain for a moment too, before finally coming to a decision.

"No, we're still on break," she announced.

"For how long?" he asked suspiciously. A malicious smile spread across her face.

"We're going back to my place," she decided. "Break will be over as soon as you defeat me in a fighting game."

"So we're done for the day, then?" He smiled.

"Are you so confident that you'll lose?" She replied. "I mean you _will_, but really, we should work on your self confidence next. Get your hood."

"As you say," he replied, retrieving his belongings. The smile that followed for the rest of the day was not his usual eerie grin, but rather a small, bashful upturning of his lips. Renge didn't seem to notice.


End file.
